1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, particularly to a card edge connector mounted on a printed circuit board with a cover to protect electrical contacts thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
TW Patent publication No. 493,818 discloses a slanted type card edge connector. The slanted type card edge connector comprises an elongated insulating housing with a front mating face and a rear face. As the mating face is slanted against a printed circuit board (PCB), in a small space, many connectors can be mounted on the PCB without occupying much area of the PCB. A central slot is defined in the front mating face for receiving a module or a card. Two rows of passageways are defined in the two sidewalls of the central slot for receiving respective contacts. Mating portions of the contacts are configured to mate with the module or the card. Connecting tails of the contacts are bent toward the PCB and exposed outside the rear face of the insulating housing. In this case, the connecting tails of the contacts tend to be greatly deformed during subsequent transportation. As a result, the assembly of the connector to the PCB and the soldering performance between the connecting tails of the contacts and the PCB will be infected badly. Therefore, there is a need to provide a member to protect the connecting tails exposed outside the insulating housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,036 discloses an electrical connector of a right-angle header with a cover to protect contacts outside the insulating housing. The insulating housing of the electrical connector comprises a front main wall, an upper wall and a pair of vertical walls. Pairs of upper and lower guide rails extend rearward from the frond, main wall along inside surfaces of respective vertical walls. The cover is formed as an elongated plate made from insulating material, comprising a pair of latching arms. The cover is assembled with the insulating housing by engagement between the latching member and the guide rails. However, the pairs of guide tails increase the dimension of the card connector, which is not desirable from the standpoint of the compactness in the computer industry. U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,272 also discloses the similar structure including a pair of side latches/guide rails which are horizontally assembled to the housing.
Therefore, an improved slanted type card edge connector with a cover is required to overcome the disadvantage of the prior art.